Chris White

Per. B P.O.S.
10/27/09
Subliminal messages

Subliminal messages have been used in music for years. Whether it’s purposeful like back masking, or it’s just examples of reverse speech which happens naturally. It could just be an example of your ears hearing what they want to hear and creating controversy about songs when the so called “subliminal message” isn’t purposeful, and in fact, is nothing but a load of hogwash. Whether its purposeful or not, these strange anomalies of music deserve to be explored and an answer needs to be found.

In "Imagine" by John Lennon there is a supposed subliminal message in the line "Imagine all the people", it is said that John Lennon is saying "The people war beside me". I believe this is a load of hogwash, there was the Viet Nam war going on at the time that this song was made and people were looking for someone to be the role model of the generation to put a stop to the unjust war. It is more of a case of the ear hearing what it wants to hear then an actual backmasking message. In the song "I'm So tired" there is a subliminal message in a load of gibberish if you listen to it backwards which supposedly says "Paul is dead man, miss him, miss him, miss him". I believe that this is an example of intentional backmasking because after the Beatles stopped touring around 1967, there record sales started to slightly decline, in order to pull the record sales around they put intentional subliminal messages in their songs to get new listeners and new people interested in their music. In the song "Kiss, Kiss, Kiss" there is supposedly a subliminal message when you play the line "Anata, daiteyo" backwards which most subliminal message experts say it says "I shot John Lennon". This is a bunch of hogwash, not only do I not believe this says this, but it sounds like indistinguishable gibberish. After John Lennon's death, the death of a world-wide superstar, people were looking for answers, they started to go back and listen to his old songs, again this seems like another case of ears and mind working together to find and listen to things that aren't actually there.

In the song "My Name is" by rapping sensation "Eminem", There is a subliminal message along the lines of: "Hi! My name is.. (what?) My name is.. (who?) My name is.. {scratches Slim Shady Hi! My name is.. (huh?) My name is.. (what?) My name is.. {scratches Slim Shady"; when played backwards it clearly says: "It is Slim, it's Eminem, it's Eminem, it's Eminem, It is Slim, it's Eminem, it's Eminem, it's Eminem". This is clearly a great example of intentional backmasking because he is saying what his name is backwards which is clever and clearly intentional. In the Pokemon theme song there are famous lyrics that go like: "Gotta catch em all, gotta catch em all (yo), gotta catch em all, gotta catch em all (yeah)"; backwards it is said that it goes like "I love satan, I love satan, I love satan, I love satan". This is clearly a load of hogwash and nothing more. It is an example of people trying to find evil things where they are not to either get attention or scare people into doing what they want, which in this case, is to have people stop letting their children watch popular tv shows like Pokemon. In the song "Empty spaces" by Pink Floyd there is a clear subliminal message in a part of the song where it seems to be indistinguishable gibberish; when played backwards it clearly says "Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your message to old pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont". This is clearly an example of backmasking because when played backwards it is almost as if he is talking forward and you can make out every single word clearly. This is done by Pink Floyd, almost as a joke and making fun of subliminal messaging because it tells you in the message that that's exactly what it is, a subliminal message. In the song "... Baby One more time" by Britney spears there is a supposed subliminal message in the line " With you I lose my mind, give me a si"; when played backwards this supposedly says " Sleep with me, I'm not to young". I believe this is an example of reverse speech in that Britney Spears did not intend to say this, but subconsciously she did intend to because this is what she really thought which in correlation is an example of reverse speech.
In the song "Nature Trail to Hell" by Weird Al Yankovich there is an example of clear backmasking in, what seems to be gibberish, the subliminal message is " Satan eats cheez whiz". This is clearly an example of intentional backmasking because that is Weird Al's form of humor, although it is not funny, and is a great example of backmasking. In the famous song "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen there is a supposed example of a subliminal message in the lines "Another one bites the dust, Another one bites the dust" which played backwards supposedly says "It's fun to smoke marijuana, It's fun to smoke marijuana''. This is a great example of hogwash. This is hogwash because it doesn't even clearly say that line and besides that, "biting the dust" is a common phrase that many people use for people who die so they didn't make up those lines which means, in fact, they did not make that subliminal message. So although the subliminal message is what Queen might have believed, it is just another great example of hogwash. In the song "Hotel California" by The Eagles there is a sublimial message in the lines "In the middle of the night, just hear them say" which listened to backwards appears to say "Satan he hears this. He had me believe". This is another great example of hogwash. The, so called, subliminal message doesn't even remotely sound like that and is just people who like to ruin a masterpiece of a song by putting in devil worshipping messages that aren't there.

Overall, there are thousands of examples of subliminal messages in music. Some intentional, some done subconsciously with no intent and some are just examples of people who like to stir up controversey. No matter what it is, subliminal messages is a big part of modern, music and is hear to stay. I my opinion, most are just hogwash, but what keeps people looking for them are those select few that are unexplainable. We as music listeners have to realize that subliminal messages are a part of music, intentional or not, and are here to stay.